My youngest has had a smart mouth this week. He is so ready to be out of school and move on to his next adventure that it is very difficult to get him to focus. This was TAKS week, which really irritates him, and therefore irritates me. He sees this week as a huge waste of his time. His irritation has come out as rants against just about anything I have asked him. I let it go for a couple of days, then I told him to cut it out.
The problem I have in dealing with him these days is that I do not have very many effective threats. He no longer goes on play dates, he has already been accepted into the school of his choice, he doesn't care if I take his computer away, television really does not matter to him, he has finished all his dvds, and he saves his money and buys his own "toys." I knew telling him to cut it out would not last.
A couple of days later he cut loose on me with some very smart remarks and I knew I had to stop it before it went any further. I used the only threat I could come up with: "Straighten up or I'm going to knock you to the ground, and don't think I can't. I may not be able to keep you down, but I can get you down once and then I can run." Of course, I knew his next remark would be ... "You can't run as fast as me." But I pre-empted it with ..."Once I knock you down I am going to strip while I run so that you won't want to catch me." Now he laughed at me, but the mouth did stop. I think he is afraid that I'm just crazy enough to do just what I threatened.
2 comments:
Well, I guess the more effective threat would be you may have been accepted to the school of your choice; but if you don't straighten up and fly right, I'll make you go to the one you don't wat to go to.
Not really. He knows how much I want him out of that school. His leaving there is almost as much a gift to me as it is to him.
I used to tell him I wouldn't let him apply to the school.
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